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We Know Peace Plans—This Isn’t One of Them

As two former members of the U.S. negotiating team on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we are deeply skeptical about the peace plan that U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly plans to present to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week. Coming at a time when Trump needs a distraction from the impeachment proceedings and Netanyahu is himself struggling with corruption charges, the timing of the road map is highly dubious.

Also rendering the plan a farce is that one of the parties to the conflict—the Palestinians—have not been engaged on the substance of the proposal and have, in fact, refused to meet with the Trump administration for over two years. It is nonsensical to expect them to go along with a deal written by someone who tried to give away their capital, closed the 175-year-old U.S. diplomatic mission to their people, closed down the Palestinians’ own mission in Washington, and severed all financial ties. This is not a way to set the grounds for a serious diplomatic process.